For 50-odd minutes at Twickenham, Wales struggled to get any attacking purchase out of England.
Having gone to west London with a team that, on paper at least, looked set up to negate the ‘new England’ that Eddie Jones has built up in the press, they found themselves 17-0 down shortly after the break.
Wales hadn’t landed a punch, but then it was questionable if they’d even thrown one.
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There had been the odd counter-attack here, a few phases behind the gain line there - but nothing of note.
Of course, the importance of the breakdown played its part. It’s tiring to point out week after week just how vital a part winning collisions and clearouts is to Wales setting up any sort of attacking shape, but it cannot be understated.
For the best part of this match, Wales got nothing at the breakdown.
Part of this was down to referee Mike Adamson, who, when it comes to breakdown interpretation, largely allows the attacking team to bring a gun to a knife fight.
But the bigger issue is that Wales know this. You know, as the defensive team, you won’t get much and you work to it. The fact that Wales got little either side of the ball points to flaws bigger than Adamson.
If the clearout was better and the carries were more dominant, you don’t leave matters up to interpretation. Simple as that.
It took a while - and a lot of chat from Dan Biggar - but Wales finally got to that point where they weren’t reliant on the toss of a breakdown coin in the second-half.
Why it clicked, it’s hard to say. At times, it felt like Wales were channeling their frustration into England and it worked. Biggar spoke afterwards how they were almost forced into a possession-based game.
Whatever the reason, Wales finally had a steady stream of quick ball and a platform to work from.
The result was perhaps their most coherent spell of attacking rugby in a year.
Biggar was able to pick and choose his moments, taking the ball in motion on phases before being hidden by options on others, with Nick Tompkins stepping into first-receiver.
But perhaps the catalyst for Wales’ revival was Tomos Williams.
There’s no doubt now that he is Wales’ first-choice nine, having put injuries behind him to nail down the jersey.
But while we’ve seen him put in good displays defensively, we’ve not really seen the kind of attacking display we know the Cardiff scrum-half can produce.
At Twickenham, we finally saw how he can be the man who dictates Wales’ attack.
So far, it feels like Williams has largely just been there to get the ball away from the ruck as quickly as possible.
That’s not always easy with inefficient clearout, but to date, Wales’ attack is largely all off 10 and Williams just feeds that.
However, when Wales rallied from their 17-point deficit, it was the scrum-half dictating the tempo.
Largely everything came off him. As a result, Biggar didn’t have to stay alive for every play.
He could stand flatter and carry harder at England.
The one try that escaped Wales, when replacement prop Gareth Thomas carried into contact with a glaring overlap outside him, came from Biggar taking two big hits from standing flat that took him out of the next phase, but crucially by being flat, he ensured the runner outside him was hitting a weak shoulder.
All of that was possible because of the threat Williams posed.
His pass for Josh Adams’ try caught the eye, but his step around the edge of the ruck was just as important.
While the pass was eye of the needle stuff, England had more than enough numbers in defence to deal with that situation.
Elliot Daly’s watching the edge of the ruck, with another three defenders outside him.
But Williams sniping for even a split-second forces the first England defender to bite. From there, the widest English player has his hips turned by the presence of Alex Cuthbert and it’s a walkover for Adams.
The snipe takes two men out of the game, then the pass eradicates the other two.
For the second try, everything again revolves around Williams. One snipe around the fringe kept England’s defence honest, sucking in two English backs to a ruck they wouldn’t have wanted to be involved in.
Beyond his work in phase play, it was the work he did in unstructured moments that hinted at the possibilities of what Williams can offer.
One basketball pass released Cuthbert down the right flank, while another looping pass from Williams, carrying the ball across the face of the English defence, set Cuthbert into space again - only for Jack Nowell to win a debatable breakdown penalty.
There's still undoubtedly plenty to work on in attack. Biggar sounded more than a little rueful afterwards that Wales only managed to find their attacking shape in short spells.
But if there was a positive to come out of defeat at Twickenham, it should be that we finally got a glimpse of what Wales can do when Williams is allowed a little more freedom to bend a match to his will.
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